Luggage cases, in particular hard sided luggage cases, provide tough, protective containers for contents during travel. Given the relatively rigid structure of a hard sided luggage case, certain portions are more susceptible to large impact loads, and thus damage, when being transferred by baggage handlers and others during a journey. One such area subject to significant impact loads is the corner region. Because of its high degree of curvature, and correspondingly reduced surface area to absorb an impact, the corner region is subject to greatly magnified loads when impacted on the corner, for instance when dropped. Previous attempts to mitigate this effect have included adding additional layers to the corner to increase the structural strength of the luggage case, thickening the material cross section of the hard sided formed layer in the corner regions, and others.
As efforts continue to accelerate the use of ever lighter-weight materials in the construction of hard sided luggage, the addition of more or thicker layers at the corners to combat this problem are becoming less acceptable.
Documents that may be related to the present disclosure in that they include various approaches to the formation of surface features on luggage cases include EP2429912, EP1763430, U.S. Pat. No. 3,313,382, U.S. D665998, U.S. Pat. No. 1,649,292, U.S. D5152566, U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,095, U.S. D429234, U.S. D299589, U.S. D633716, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,251,460, 4,712,657, 2,036,276, 2,950,792, U.S. D644435, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,163,686, 2,510,643, U.S. D659395, U.S. D627162, U.S. D710608, U.S. D710609, U.S. Pat. No. 1,987,764, GB2184940, GB2361692, JP2009262499, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,131,713, 6,035,982, and 4,803,769. These proposals, however, may be improved.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved luggage article (or case), and in particular an improved luggage shell design, that can absorb and disperse an impact force applied to the luggage case to reduce the risk of damage, such as by permanent deformation.